National Chocolate Covered Cashews Day is observed each year on April 21st. Not unlike other nuts, cashews and chocolate get along well together. Of course, chocolate lovers savor the combination of nutty crunch and creamy, rich chocolate.
- The cashew is a tree from the family Anacardiaceae. Its English name comes from Portuguese for the fruit of the cashew tree “caju.”
- Originally native to Northeastern Brazil, cashew trees are now widely grown in tropical climates for its cashew fruit and nuts.
- Surprisingly, the shell of the cashew nut is toxic, which is why producers shell the cashew before selling it to consumers.
- Pistachio, mango, cashew and poison ivy are in the same family.
- Cashews are native to Costa Rica and Central America. The fresh cashew nut has a substance inside that produce a big burn and rash on the skin and in the mouth, at the same time this is a highly valuable product known as Cashew Nut Shell Liquid or CNSL, an ingredient that has special structural features for transformation into specialty chemicals and high value polymers, this is important considering the fact that, since this is a renewable resource,it is better than synthetics.
- The cashew nut is different than the cashew apple, this last one is a kind of fruit to which it’s attached the nut, this fleshy fruit has an aroma some people love while others dislike, the most common way of preparation of this fruit is doing a tasteful juice mixed with water and sugar.
- A quite interesting experience is to burn a raw cashew nut in a wood fire, this CNSL is highly flammable and while it burns produces impressive tiny explosions.
- India is the world’s largest producer of cashews, with Brazil second and Africa a distant third.
- Cashews have a high-fat content, which means that if they are left at room temperature, they won’t stay fresh for long.
- Chocolate is so popular that there are many different celebrations of chocolate each year.
- White chocolate is not actually chocolate but instead is a white candy made with cocoa butter.
- Cashews are kidney-shaped seed that grows on the bottom of a cashew apple.
- 400 cocoa beans make up one pound of chocolate
- 1 ounce of raw cashews contains 157 calories.
- Cacao was once used as a currency.
- Cashews are very nutritious and the nut is packed with proteins and lots of essential minerals.
- Asian cuisine is known for using cashews in its recipes.
- The United States consumes over 90% of the world’s cashew crop.
- There are 8 people in the U.S. listed on whitepages.com with the last name ‘Cashew’
- 800 AD – The Aztecs start growing cacao plants and drinking chocolates.
- 1558 – Cashews are discovered by Europeans in Brazil.
- 1900s – Companies like Nestle popularize chocolate-covered nuts.
- 2000s – National Chocolate Covered Cashews Day is created as a dedication to these tasty treats.
- ‘Theobroma cacao,’ the Latin name for the cacao plant roughly translates to ‘the food of the Gods.’
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